Bernd Kortmann

A Handbook of Varieties of English

Compared with the regional synopses, it is in this chapter that we shall adopt a truly bird’s-eye, or even satellite, view at morphosyntactic variation across the non-standard varieties in the English-speaking world. Relevant questions that will be addressed include the following: Which are the least and, more interestingly, most frequent morphosyntactic features in non-standard varieties of Englishes worldwide, and thus true candidates for what Chambers (2001, 2003, 2004) has called vernacular universals (section 4)? What in this respect can be said and which distinctive patterns and correlations can be identifi ed for the seven world regions investigated in this Handbook (section 5), for fi rst (L1) and second (L2) language varieties and Pidgins/Creoles within and across the seven world regions (section 6), and for individual areas of morphosyntax (section 7)? It will turn out that the patterns identifi ed in section 6 are a crucial key to understanding the patterns in sections 5 and 7. The primary source for the answers to these and other questions addressed in this global synopsis is a catalogue of 76 morphosyntactic features from 11 domains of grammar which was sent to the authors of the morphosyntax chapters of this Handbook (see section 2). For each of these 76 features the authors were asked to specify into which of the following three categories the relevant feature in the relevant variety (or set of closely related varieties) falls:The Handbook is by far the most thorough reference work on phonology and the first-ever comprehensive overview of the morphology and syntax of varieties of English in the world. The Handbook consists of a two volume book accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM. The genuine speech samples and interactive maps of the CD-ROM not only supplement the printed articles by offering lively illustrations of the varieties of English around the world, but the material offered can also be used for linguistic research. The multimedia material is now also available online. Survey Articles The books feature descriptive survey articles that are authored by widely acclaimed specialists in the field and that cover all main national standard varieties, distinctive regional, ethnic, and social varieties, major contact varieties, as well as major ESL varieties; share a common core, which makes them invaluable research tools for cross-linguistic comparisons; provide information on the historical and cultural backgrounds as well as the current sociolinguistic situations in the respective regions; serve as state-of-the-art reports on major issues in current research. CD-ROM The CD-ROM not only supplements the printed volumes through interactive access to the varieties but also provides a comprehensive database with: a unique collection of speech recordings of English from around the world; sound samples that open new perspectives on the varieties of English, as speech recordings also constitute the central aspect of research - students as well as professional academics will feel encouraged to use the material for new investigations; interactive and synchronized maps that allow either phonological or morphosyntactic (grammatical) comparisons; extensive bibliographies on the relevant research literature; links to pertinent websites. Online Version The online version provides departments of English and Linguistics with the opportunity to make the multimedia tools simultaneously available to a wider number of faculty members and students. instructors can deploy the sound samples and interactive maps to enhance their classroom presentations and to highlight important language features; researchers are provided with a database of multimedia material for further study; students can employ the data when working on classroom assignments. Together, the books and the CD-ROM are an indispensable reference work and research tool for sociolinguists, dialectologists, phonologists, grammarians, typologists, and specialists in contact languages and varieties of English around the world. Given its accessible style and its rich auditory and visual support, this Handbook is also ideally suited not only for professional academics but also for undergraduate and graduate students. The editors are responsible for the following topics: Kate Burridge/ Bernd Kortmann: Australia / Pacific Archipelagos Bernd Kortmann: British Isles: Morphology and Syntax Rajend Mesthrie: Africa / South and Southeast Asia Edgar W. Schneider: The Americas / Caribbean Clive Upton: British Isles: Phonology System requirements for the CD-ROM:Hardware: Pentium 500 MHz or AMD K6-III+ 500 MHz, PowerPC G3, 64 MB RAM, 16-bit SoundcardOperating Systems: Windows 98, NT, Me, 2000, XP/ Mac OS 9.x, X 10.x/ Linux (any distribution with Kernel 2.0)Supported Browsers: Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6 (Mac OS: Internet Explorer 5.1)/ Netscape 7.x/ Mozilla 1.0/ Mozilla Firefox 0.8Plugins: Macromedia Flash Player 6/ Acrobat Reader

Adverbial subordination : a typology and history of adverbial subordinators based on European languages

Based on morphological, syntactic and semantic analysis of the complete inventories of adverbial subordinators of some 50 European languages, this monograph presents an account of adverbial subordinators to date. Besides laying the theoretical and methodological foundations for the typological and historical study of adverbial subordinators and related grammatical categories, it takes a stand on, and offers fascinating insights into, issues of central concern to linguists.

Global synopsis: Morphological and syntactic variation in english

Compared with the regional synopses, it is in this chapter that we shall adopt a truly bird’s-eye, or even satellite, view at morphosyntactic variation across the non-standard varieties in the English-speaking world. Relevant questions that will be addressed include the following: Which are the least and, more interestingly, most frequent morphosyntactic features in non-standard varieties of Englishes worldwide, and thus true candidates for what Chambers (2001, 2003, 2004) has called vernacular universals (section 4)? What in this respect can be said and which distinctive patterns and correlations can be identifi ed for the seven world regions investigated in this Handbook (section 5), for fi rst (L1) and second (L2) language varieties and Pidgins/Creoles within and across the seven world regions (section 6), and for individual areas of morphosyntax (section 7)? It will turn out that the patterns identifi ed in section 6 are a crucial key to understanding the patterns in sections 5 and 7. The primary source for the answers to these and other questions addressed in this global synopsis is a catalogue of 76 morphosyntactic features from 11 domains of grammar which was sent to the authors of the morphosyntax chapters of this Handbook (see section 2). For each of these 76 features the authors were asked to specify into which of the following three categories the relevant feature in the relevant variety (or set of closely related varieties) falls:The Handbook is by far the most thorough reference work on phonology and the first-ever comprehensive overview of the morphology and syntax of varieties of English in the world. The Handbook consists of a two volume book accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM. The genuine speech samples and interactive maps of the CD-ROM not only supplement the printed articles by offering lively illustrations of the varieties of English around the world, but the material offered can also be used for linguistic research. The multimedia material is now also available online. Survey Articles The books feature descriptive survey articles that are authored by widely acclaimed specialists in the field and that cover all main national standard varieties, distinctive regional, ethnic, and social varieties, major contact varieties, as well as major ESL varieties; share a common core, which makes them invaluable research tools for cross-linguistic comparisons; provide information on the historical and cultural backgrounds as well as the current sociolinguistic situations in the respective regions; serve as state-of-the-art reports on major issues in current research. CD-ROM The CD-ROM not only supplements the printed volumes through interactive access to the varieties but also provides a comprehensive database with: a unique collection of speech recordings of English from around the world; sound samples that open new perspectives on the varieties of English, as speech recordings also constitute the central aspect of research - students as well as professional academics will feel encouraged to use the material for new investigations; interactive and synchronized maps that allow either phonological or morphosyntactic (grammatical) comparisons; extensive bibliographies on the relevant research literature; links to pertinent websites. Online Version The online version provides departments of English and Linguistics with the opportunity to make the multimedia tools simultaneously available to a wider number of faculty members and students. instructors can deploy the sound samples and interactive maps to enhance their classroom presentations and to highlight important language features; researchers are provided with a database of multimedia material for further study; students can employ the data when working on classroom assignments. Together, the books and the CD-ROM are an indispensable reference work and research tool for sociolinguists, dialectologists, phonologists, grammarians, typologists, and specialists in contact languages and varieties of English around the world. Given its accessible style and its rich auditory and visual support, this Handbook is also ideally suited not only for professional academics but also for undergraduate and graduate students. The editors are responsible for the following topics: Kate Burridge/ Bernd Kortmann: Australia / Pacific Archipelagos Bernd Kortmann: British Isles: Morphology and Syntax Rajend Mesthrie: Africa / South and Southeast Asia Edgar W. Schneider: The Americas / Caribbean Clive Upton: British Isles: Phonology System requirements for the CD-ROM:Hardware: Pentium 500 MHz or AMD K6-III+ 500 MHz, PowerPC G3, 64 MB RAM, 16-bit SoundcardOperating Systems: Windows 98, NT, Me, 2000, XP/ Mac OS 9.x, X 10.x/ Linux (any distribution with Kernel 2.0)Supported Browsers: Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6 (Mac OS: Internet Explorer 5.1)/ Netscape 7.x/ Mozilla 1.0/ Mozilla Firefox 0.8Plugins: Macromedia Flash Player 6/ Acrobat Reader

The British Isles

This volumegives a detailed overview of the varieties of English spoken on the British Isles, including lesser-known varieties such as those spoken in Orkney and Shetland and the Channel Islands. The chapters, written by widely acclaimed specialists, provide concise and comprehensive information on the phonological, morphological and syntactic characteristics of each variety discussed. The articles are followed by exercises and study questions. The exercises are geared towards students and can be used for classroom assignments as well as for self study in preparation for exams. Instructors can use the exercises, sound samples and interactive maps to enhance their classroom presentations and to highlight important language features. The accompanying CD-ROM contains interactive maps and speech samples that supplement the printed articles and offer material and data for further research. The rich detail found in the chapters as well as the valuable tools on the CD-Rom make this survey of English Varieties a mainstay for researchers and teachers. Key features indispensable textbook for students of English linguistics exercises and study questions interactive CD-ROM

A comparative grammar of British English dialects : agreement, gender, relative clauses

This volume offers qualitative as well as corpus-based quantitative studies on grammatical variation in the British Isles written from a typological perspective. All studies make use of the Freiburg English Dialect Corpus (FRED), a computerized corpus for predominantly British English dialects. Systematic comparative analyses of the following three domains of grammar form the backbone of the volume: relativization strategies in Scottish English, Northern Irish English, and in four major dialect areas in England (Herrmann), the so-called Northern Subject Rule, a special agreement phenomenon known from Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland (Pietsch), and pronominal gender, with a special focus on the typologically rather unique semantic gender system in the dialects of Southwest England (Wagner). This volume will be of interest to dialectologists, sociolinguists, typologists, historical linguists, grammarians, and anyone interested in the structure of spontaneous spoken English. Key Features It is the first book of its kind. It is rare already in its focus on the morphology and syntax of dialects. It is unique in its general orientation and data base. The volume is bound to have a major impact on English dialectology and the study of the grammar of English.

The Mouton world atlas of variation in English

The Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English (WAVE) presents grammatical variation in spontaneous spoken English, mapping 235 features in 48 varieties of English (traditional dialects, high-contact mother tongue Englishes, and indiginized second-language Englishes) and 26 English-based Pidgins and Creoles in eight Anglophone world regions (Africa, Asia, Australia, British Isles, the Caribbean, North America, the Pacific, and the South Atlantic). The analyses of the 74 varieties are based on descriptive materials, naturalistic corpus data, and native speaker knowledge.

Linguistic complexity : second language acquisition, indigenization, contact

Linguistic complexity is one of the currently most hotly debated notions in linguistics. The essays in this volume address the intricacies of assessing the complexity of languages and language varieties (here: of English) in three major linguistic disciplines: creolistics, indigenization and nativization studies, and Second Language Acquisition research. The volume is thus unique in bringing together leading representatives of three often disjunct fields of linguistic scholarship in which linguistic complexity is seen as a dynamic and inherently variable parameter.

Frequency and Chunking in Derived Words: A Parametric fMRI Study

In usage-based linguistic theories, the assumption that high-frequency language strings are mentally represented as unitary chunks has been invoked to account for a wide range of phenomena. However, neurocognitive evidence in support of this assumption is still lacking. In line with Gestalt psychological assumptions, we propose that a language string qualifies as a chunk if the following two conditions are simultaneously satisfied: The perception of the whole string does not involve strong activation of its individual component parts, but the component parts in isolation strongly evoke the whole. Against this background, we explore the relationship between different frequency metrics and the chunk status of derived words (e.g., “government,” “worthless”) in a masked visual priming experiment with two conditions of interest. One condition investigates “whole-to-part” priming (worthless–WORTH), whereas the other one analyzes “part-to-whole” priming (tear–TEARLESS). Both conditions combine mixed-effects regression analyses of lexical decision RTs with a parametric fMRI design. Relative frequency (the frequency of the whole word relative to that of its onset-embedded part) emerges as the only frequency metric to correlate with chunk status in behavioral terms. The fMRI results show that relative frequency modulates activity in regions that have been related to morphological (de)composition or general task performance difficulty (notably left inferior frontal areas) and in regions associated with competition between whole, undecomposed words (right inferior frontal areas). We conclude that relative frequency affects early stages of processing, thereby supporting the usage-based concept of frequency-induced chunks.

The Viking Hypothesis from a Dialectologist’s Perspective

The Viking Hypothesis neglects (i) the significant degree of stability from Old to Middle (and even Modern) English grammar and (ii) parallel, but independent, developments not induced by North Germanic in the grammars of continental West Germanic dialects.

The Pacific and Australasia

This volume gives a detailed overview of the varieties of English spoken in the Pacific and Australasia, including regional, social and ethnic dicalects (such as New Zealand, Australian Vernacular, or Maori English) as well as pidgins and creoles (such as Tok Pisin, Hawaii Creole, or Kriol in Australia). The chapters, written by widely acclaimed specialists, provide concise and comprehensive information on the phonological, morphological and syntactic characteristics of each variety discussed. The articles are followed by exercises and study questions. The exercises are geared towards students and can be used for classroom assignments as well as for self study in preparation for exams. Instructors can use the exercises, sound samples and interactive maps to enhance their classroom presentations and to highlight important language features. The accompanying CD-ROM contains interactive maps and speech samples that supplement the printed articles and offer material and data for further research. The rich detail found in the chapters as well as the valuable tools on the CD-Rom make this survey of English Varieties a mainstay for researchers and teachers. Key features indispensable textbook for students of English linguistics exercises and study questions interactive CD-ROM